The internet is a breeding ground for memes, and among the most intriguing and controversial is the "Chad" meme. This term, often used with a mix of irony and derision, has complex origins and a shifting meaning that reflects broader cultural anxieties about masculinity, sex, and social status. Let's delve into the history and significance of this meme.
Virgin vs Chad Meme
What Does "Chad" Mean?
In its simplest form, a "Chad" is a sexually active "alpha male," according to The Cut. The term originated within the horrendously backward incel (involuntary celibate) culture and is often used to denote the opposite of an incel. Whereas an incel sees himself as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one-and therefore ends up demonizing women-a "Chad" gets all the women because of his superior appearance, confidence, and physical prowess.
In simpler terms, incels are envious of these so-called Chads for being able to sleep with and date a lot of women, and because of this, they resent them. They also see Chads as inhibiting their ability to have sex and find a girlfriend. In their minds, Chads are out there “stealing” all the available women.
According to Chris Haywood, Ph.D., a Reader of Critical Masculinity Studies at Newcastle University and author of Men, Masculinity and Contemporary Dating, incels often use a rating system to explain and justify their lack of romantic and sexual competence. There are Alpha Fux (a.k.a. Chads), Beta Bux (older men with money), and Sub5 males (on a scale of 1-10, incels often position themselves lower than 5). To them, Chads are winners of a genetic lottery, popular with women out of sheer dumb luck. This, in turn, harbors further resentment.
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“Because that [idealized] body is out of reach, their inability to get what they desire manifests itself in the form of hatred,” Haywood says.
The Archetype of Chad
A Chad is a man who can elicit near-universal positive female sexual attention at will. He is usually good looking, muscular, tall, and wealthy, or has otherwise high status and tends be a fast life history strategist. In countries where team sports are popular and associated with high social status, he is often a jock. He also tends to have intimidating masculine features such as a square jaw, hunter eyes, pronounced cheekbones, a broad chin, and a thick neck. Highly attractive less masculine men are often considered prettyboys as opposed to chads.
One meaning of Chad is a high status, competent, and good looking male, who could have all the chicks if he wanted to. But the high-status Chad is not necessarily promiscuous. The other meaning of Chad is a highly promiscuous male, i.e. a male with fast life genes. In this case, it may sometimes even be used as a derogatory term.
Women's desire for high-status men and Chads can perhaps be explained by the bodyguard hypothesis, which states women seek protection from undesirable males by choosing the most dominant man available to them. Dominance is not only about strength but also wealth, looks, IQ, intimidating appearance, personality, social skills, and influence. Before the industrial revolution and women entering the workforce en masse in the 20th century, women heavily depended on men's resources.
This ancestral dependence on male provision suggests women face a trade-off between choosing a more dominant, more protective and better looking, but less committing Chad, or a less dominant, but more committing betabuxx.
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There is also evidence suggesting that beauty is also weakly correlated with the overall quality of the organism. Slight deviations from the average face may serve as an indicator of developmental instability. Cross-culturally, there is little evidence that women prefer masculine faces exclusively, with men's facial masculinity seemingly mostly unrelated to their overall facial attractiveness, though this appears to vary by ecological and mating context.
Humans are substantially self-domesticated and therefore neotenous (meaning retaining youthful features) such that some facial neoteny is also attractive in men (see pretty boy). It has been noted that high fitness fathers (Chads) whilst they do produce high fitness sons (Sexy Sons Hypothesis) tend to also produce low fitness daughters and vise versa for Stacy's.
The "Chad" Meme's Rise to Popularity
The categories of "Virgo" and "Chad" emerged in 2016 from the publication of a meme on the social network 4chan. The word Chad seemed to gain mainstream traction (and its joke-y, ironic usage) thanks to a popular 2017 meme known as "The Chad Stride." The Chad Stride depicted how an arrogant Chad walks like an entitled D-bag. According to KnowYourMeme.com, the drawing was created in opposition to the "The Virgin Walk" illustration, which depicts how an incel walks without confidence.
On June 1st, 2006, Urban Dictionary user Mav Himself submitted an entry for "Chad," defining him as a guy who "goes to the bar to pick up chicks." On August 9th, 2013, Urban Dictionary user Dr. On January 9th, 2015, BodyBuilding Forums user oogahboogah submitted a post titled "Going on Tinder as Chad Thundercock is beyond depressing". The post featured screenshots of Tinder chat sessions using a fake profile. On March 23rd, Redditor invicticide submitted a post questioning how Chad became "the default name for alpha douchebros" to the /r/ForeverAlone subreddit, to which Redditor ian_n cited the /r9k/ board on 4chan as the origin of the meme.
The "Chad" meme
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Common Characteristics of a "Chad"
Common characteristics for a Chad born from looks often include: above manlet height, large frame, broad shoulders, 0-1 on the Norwood scale, hunter eyes with little to no upper eyelid exposure, positively or neutrally tilted eyes, prominent high cheekbones, thick eyebrows, a large skull, compact midface, killer long chin, defined squarish jawline, long vertical ramus, gonial angle of approx.
Chad dated a Trixie (later Stacy), who was a young, blonde, cheerleader-type woman who drove a black Jetta, drank Starbucks lattes, worked in marketing or PR, and filled her small apartment with the latest from Pottery Barn. At the time, neither Chad nor Trixie was overly sexualized or caricatured: Chad was athletic and could play a sport or two, but he was not necessarily a bulky body-builder nor captain of the varsity team.
| Characteristic | Description |
|---|---|
| Physical Appearance | Tall, muscular, attractive, with a square jaw and hunter eyes. |
| Social Status | Popular, confident, often a "jock" in school. |
| Relationship Status | Sexually active, often dating attractive women (Stacys/Trixies). |
| Personality | Confident, sometimes perceived as arrogant or entitled. |
Characteristics of a "Chad"
The Dark Side of "Chad": Toxic Masculinity
“Incel men are angry at life and society for not being structured in a way where they are closer to the top of the sexual hierarchy and have made a villain out of the archetypal man who they believe is inhabiting this rung of the social/sexual ladder,” explains Connor Beaton, founder of the podcast ManTalks, which works to develop and connect high-performing, self-aware, and impactful men around the world.
Is being called a "Chad" a good thing? No. When non-incels use the slang term, it's not only used in connection to stereotypically attractive men; the word is also used to describe a person (or story) they simply find frustrating, or disagree with.
Whether it's coming from the fucked-up incel community or on regular-person social media, the word Chad reinforces the toxic ideology that incel men are somehow victims in a system of oppression entirely of their own invention. It also puts so-called Chads on a pedestal, Beaton says-“neither of these scenarios propagates a meaningful solution, nor do they empower anyone involved."
Beaton suggests we stop using the word altogether, given that it upholds a belief system that demonizes women and perpetuates dangerous notions of toxic masculinity. Or we could repurpose the word to mean something different.
“Oftentimes, the best defense against something damaging like this is to rewrite its meaning and create a healthier mainstream narrative, one that brings unification rather than separation,” Beaton says.
The slang term Chad has historically been applied in different contexts. The term has come into use in incel forums and as internet slang to refer to sexually active, genetically superior men, or "alpha males". Within the manosphere and internet culture, Chads are generally viewed as constituting the top decile in terms of genetic fitness. In online animation drawings in the manosphere, a Chad is often depicted as a muscular blond man with very pronounced masculine features.
Chads are sometimes portrayed as the opposite to "omega" or "beta" males, and as physically attractive. "Gigachad" is a related internet meme that uses black-and-white photographs of a muscular male model.
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